“At least we’re trying”: Experimenting with roles and repertoires to foster new connections between science and society:Conduct defined experiments using best practices highlighted in showcases to determine the extent to which approaches work in different context (original) (raw)

The current science communication ecosystem is highly fragmented, dynamic and complex. This provides science communicators with both opportunities, but also leads to difficult challenges. The RETHINK project aims to understand the changing landscape of science communication and research, experiment with and develop methods for science communicators to stimulate open, transparent and productive science-society interactions. In the past two and a half years RETHINK has strived to understand this complex ecosystem. Whilst science communicators generally recognize opportunities to strengthen the ties between science and society, many science communication practitioners and scholars involved in the RETHINK project perceive a disconnect between science and society, i.e., a disconnect with their audiences. Four (interrelated) developments play an important role in this disconnect, and have been explored in earlier research by RETHINK. First, the boundaries between science and society have become blurred, confronting the public with a vast amount of information from a variety of sources and as a result, facts are increasingly becoming mixed with opinions and scientific issues are becoming politized. Second, science communication has become heavily digitalized, fundamentally changing the relationship between science and society, leading to new channels and resources for science communication, and facilitating the creation of information about science by a variety of publics online. Third, the rapid proliferation of misinformation and affiliated polarization, magnified by the pandemic's sudden emergence, changes the dynamics between science and society further. Fourth, misconceptions of how citizens make sense of complex science-related problems and the inability to reach all members of society equally when communicating about science are sobering insights for science communication professionals: their practice might not reach their audiences as effectively as thought. The contemporary science communication ecosystem is thus highly complex and science communicators are working to find ways to address the disconnect between science and society, something RETHINK aims to account for in this study. Traditional roles (e.g., conduits, watchdogs) for science communication professionals might no longer be suitable and sufficient in the current landscape under varying circumstances. Therefore, the aim of this report is to explore the different roles science communicators assume-or should be assuming-to meet the challenges and demands in the contemporary science communication landscape. On the basis of earlier RETHINK research on how science communicators employ innovative techniques to reach underserved audiences, six roles were formulated that can be-and are-adopted by science communication practitioners to enhance their connections with a wider range of audiences: The Broker, creates connections between target audience and actors to obtain access to a target group, links with other actors to supply, involves all actors in dialogue; The Listener, connects to target audience with active listening and empathy and integrates that what is learned in communication activity; The Includer, breaks